Heidi
Does English have such expression 'a needle in the ocean'?
In Chinese, we have similar expression (大海捞针) to express that it's nearly impossible to do something. Does English have such expression 'a needle in the ocean'?
It's difficult to distinguish whether some expression is native or not..Thank you for your help!
2015년 10월 15일 오전 8:06
답변 · 9
2
'a drop in the ocean', means that something will have as much impact as adding just one drop of water to the ocean. It doesn't mean that something is impossible to do, just that the doing of it is unlikely to have much impact.
We say 'needle in a haystack' when we mean that the search for something is almost impossible - that finding the object in question is the equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack.
2015년 10월 15일
In English we say "a needle in a haystack."
2015년 10월 15일
Very hard to get something done is like drawing blood from a stone.
2015년 10월 16일
As Guo42 says, we have the expression 'needle in a haystack' - but it has a more restricted use. If something is impossible to FIND, we say that it's 'like looking for a needle in a haystack'. We don't use it for the more general meaning of something that's very difficult to do.
2015년 10월 15일
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